Funny Pains: Review

30th January 2021

Wendi Starling has quite the reputation on the New York comedy circuit. She’s funny, self-deprecating and perhaps honest to a fault when it comes to her comedy. However, Starling’s brand of comedy may not be for everybody because for her, her life is what she puts on stage.

Starling has gone through things that most people wouldn’t want to talk about, let alone laugh about. Funny Pains is a documentary about Wendy Starling and the other stand-up comedians living and working in New York.

Each of the comedians from many different backgrounds talk about their lives, their work on stage and the passion that drives them to go out night after night and try to make people laugh. They also talk about comedy in general, boundaries that they’re willing to cross and the reactions they get from different audiences as attitudes changes to certain topics being deemed unfunny.

However, Funny Pains puts its comedians front and centre and talks about their personal experiences which may very well be far worse than anybody’s who comes to see their show.

Starling in particular has had experiences of rape, addiction and bi polar disorder and still finds a way to talk about her life that makes it funny, engaging and entertaining – which is perhaps what a lot of people are afraid to do. Comedy seems to be cathartic and being able to be so open about subjects that so many try to avoid may be the very thing that saves them.

Those going in to the documentary cold may get a good understanding of how comedians think and what drives them, but for those who want to watch a documentary about Wendi Starling and her life, then they may be disappointed.

Because Starling so openly talks about her life on stage, there doesn’t seem to be a huge focus on her, preferring to talk with her fellow comedians about what they think of comedy and how they got there. However, there are some short and quite revealing interviews about Starling’s own life that get inside the mind of a comedian on the verge of becoming famous.

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